Friday, June 25, 2010

Working Drawings for Architecture

In architectural drafting, the working drawings are all plans, elevations, and details needed by the contractor along with the specifications, so that an estimate can be obtained and then the building can be constructed. These need to show all dimensions and be properly scaled. Any oddities of construction must be made clear on these drawings and they must be so complete in a way that no extra money can be charged to the owner by the contractor who bid the job as is shown in the working drawings and specifications. Below is a general description of what they contain.

First Floor Plan

The plan of the first floor is almost always the first plan to be drawn. With the conventional drawings to follow, it is a simple matter to draw any plan. Almost all residential drawings are made to the scale of one quarter inch equals one foot. The outside walls are drawn in first, scaling four to six inches for frame buildings, and then the interior partitions and details. It is then completely dimensioned even though it scales exactly to size because the dimensions are of greater importance. You wouldn’t expect the framer to have to use a scale to find where the walls are placed.

Second Floor Plan

The outside walls of this plan and the main partitions are derived from the first floor plan. If possible, run the second floor partitions over the first, or as near to them as practical to carry weight down to the foundation or basement.

Basement Plan

The plan of the basement is also derived from the first floor plan because its outside dimensions are the same. The main wall is made of masonry block or concrete that is eight to twelve inches thick, rests upon an twenty four inch wide footing, and runs up to and beyond the grade line (ground level). Through the center, to support the long span of the joists, a girder is run. This is then held up by posts resting on a concrete footing. You have to be very careful to dimension the basement plan exactly because it is the foundation of the structure and the first part of the building that is to be built. Some drafters will locate the heater, waste pipe, and sewer outlet on this plan.

Elevations

The exterior views called the elevations comes next. The floor plan is placed over the elevation that is being drawn, and all the points projected up to it. When one elevation is finished, its heights can be projected to the next view in the same manner.

Section or Sections


The section is where a horizontal line is cut through the building as if chopped with a knife to show how the building is constructed. A scaled section clears up a lot of confused detail. It shows all trim, stairs, and construction details in a way that there is very little room for confusion. The section is one of the most important drawings and it should not be neglected or omitted in any way.

About the Author

To learn more about Working Drawings along with creating an entire set of house plans, visit House Plan Drafting 101 at http://homedesign.8m.com. My name is Tim Davis and I created that course.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Christian Message Boards - A Wonderful Witnessing Tool

There is nothing more useful than a face to face talk with someone about the Lord Jesus Christ and Salvation. However, with the age of the internet and the media available to us like instant messengers, chats, and message boards, a whole new and fresh medium is open for us to deliver the Gospel message. One of the most powerful tools available is the Christian message board. These seem to draw people from all over the world with every belief imaginable.

And the themes of these boards vary considerably. I have two boards myself. One is quintessentially Baptist in nature and the other is more geared to fellowship with all denominations and beliefs. The latter is by far the most active and defiantly a place where the various biblical teachings can be reasoned over.

Some of the most involved and sometimes heated discussion have been over subjects like eternal security vs. salvation lost, female preachers and pastors, pro and con prosperity ministry, church history, and even how a Christian should dress.

Fellowship is one of the biggest draws to these boards. Members can post prayer requests and have brothers and sisters from around the world pray for them. The scriptures tell us in Romans 12:10 that we should be “preferring one another” and also in Galatians 6:2 where we should “bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Young teens seem to love the boards because they can talk over most anything with other Christian youths.

There are many shut-in Christians who are disabled and cannot attend regular church services who find these message board a real God send. They receive the support they need and ease some of the loneliness they sometimes have to endure because of being a shut-in.

Brother Tim Davis is is a Baptist Pastor and Police Chaplain who runs a Christian Message Board called PCIM at http://www.parsonscorner.org/pcimunity/ and a Baptist themed board called "The Old Pathways" at http://receivedtext.org/oldpath/index.php

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Old Colonial Architecture

Colonial architecture was and is the architecture of rectangles. On the floor plan, these rectangles intersected each other much the same as they would in a game of dominoes. In the elevations the parallelogram was used almost exclusively, with its looks enhanced by a great deal of horizontal lines. Arches, curves and oblique shapes were avoided like the plague.

Completely avoiding out of the normal geometry, these structures were well proportioned and their dignity was and is displayed with the utmost pride. These homes were so direct and straightforward that there were no obstacles to the work of builders and so well created with such good design that even though a great deal of design styles have come and gone, the old Colonial still remains a mainstay design even in the twenty first century..

The beauty as a result of balance or harmonious arrangement of the exterior of the colonial should never be strayed from. At each end of the building you would see stately chimneys always equal in size, whether they were functional or not; and in order to avoid the use of windows of different size, it was common to see a stairway cross a window without any attempt whatsoever to hide it from view outside. You would almost suspect that the designers were lazy because it seemed like they traced one half of the exterior elevation, and then, flipping the paper over on its face, retrace it to balance the original.

Then, as now, the degree of formality and stateliness obtainable in a building depended upon how much money was in your pocket. Additional money available in the hands of capable designers made sure that the architectural composition was properly completed and enhanced the decorative effect. This is illustrated in walls. The simplest and cheapest were those of plain brickwork, or large brick or stone covering with a coarse plaster of lime, shells, and pebbles used for outside wall surfaces. Variations of these were the laying of brick in the Flemish bond or other ornamental methods of laying brick, and the forming of projecting pilasters, bands or string courses.

Even though these houses most often stood off by themselves in the open country, there was a definite effort to concentrate great thought and workmanship into their fronts. A larger degree of formality with a corresponding increase in the expenditure of money, effort, etc. was obtained by simple but large quoins or projecting brick courses at the corners of the building.

Finally the greatest example of stateliness was arrived at by cutting the stone of walls into regular shapes and sizes forming ashlar work which was a thin, dressed rectangles of stone oddly spaced, but with a recognizable pattern.

Most of these type homes can be found in the southeastern United States and especially in north and central Georgia and east Tennessee. Many of these have stood the test of centuries and still as beautiful today as they were when they were built well before the Civil War.

About the Author

To learn more about architectural styles, along with creating an entire set of house drawings, visit House Plan Drafting 101 at http://homedesign.8m.com. My name is Tim Davis and I created that course.